Monday, 31 August 2015

Out of all the potential sleeping places in the house, I’m
pretty sure your four-legged companion would prefer to sleep in your bed! Does yours?

The
decision to let your pet into your bed is a topic that often divides owners,
but it might just be more common than you think. Around half of pet owners
sleep alongside their pets. The luckiest seem to be dogs (although Great Danes
probably miss out here) and cats. It is believed that around 40-50% of pet
owners sleep alongside their pets - many of whom, go to extreme lengths to
accommodate them (like the guy below).

Yet for such a common practice, we know relatively little
about how and why people do it, or the implications. Do dog and cat owners
jeopardise their sleep quality to accommodate their animal companions in their bed or bedroom? Think about
when your dog needs to go out for a pee at 2am, or wakes you before your alarm goes
off in the morning because they are ready to play, or hungry for breakfast. Or
what about the point in the night when the cat decides your face is the most
comfortable place to sleep? After all, dogs and cat have completely different
sleep needs and circadian rhythms to humans, and are much more sensitive to
stimuli, even when asleep.

A lot of the information that exists on this topic tends to
focus on the health and hygiene implications (e.g. transfer of diseases, asthma
and allergies). This is something I can related to. The day my wife and I watched
our border collie roll around in fresh poo was the day we knew she was never going to
join us in our bed…ever! But in reality, there is no real health risks, so long
as you keep your pet clean and healthy.

I have been involved in several studies with colleague of mine, Dr Kirrilly Thompson, seeking to gain an understanding of this topic. First, in a survey
of the sleep behaviours of 10,000 Australians, we gained some preliminary
insight. We found that around 1 in 10 Australians bed-shared with their pet
(this excluded those that allow their animals to sleep on the bedroom floor).

We found 3 ways that
human sleep practices were impacted:

It took pet bed-sharers longer than
non-pet bed-sharers to get to sleep

Pet bed-sharers woke up more tired, and

Pet bed-sharers were more likely to be woken during the night from dogs barking and animal noises.

It seems that there is a lot to this relationship,
and many people are willing to make sacrifices to their own sleep. Maybe its because our pets provide us with a sense of security and comfort, or perhaps it’s the only way to keep
the animal from causing more problems!

In a follow-up study, with our honours student Peta
Hazelton, we conducted the first in-depth look into human-dog co-sleeping. The
study, which included an Australian only sample, revealed the rate of human-dog
co-sleeping was high (69%) amongst the 1,328 dog owners we sampled.

The most common dog sleeping location was in the bedroom, on
top of the covers (34%), followed by in the bedroom on the floor (22%), in the
house but not in the bedroom (21%), in the bed and under the covers (13%), and
10% of dogs slept outside. Heat map images revealed when two people are in a
double (or larger) bed, dogs frequently slept between, or at the feet of
couple. When one person is in a double (or larger) bed, dogs generally slept at
chest level, presumably opposite participants. For those in a single bed, the
dog often slept on the floor beside the bed.

So why do dog owners choose to bed share?

The study revealed that people's motivations to co-sleep are diverse, with responses including for dog
behavioural issues (barking or destructive behaviours if not in the bedroom),
health reasons (needed to keep seizure alert dog nearby), owner’s attitude
(viewing the dog as a family member or ‘pack’), factors out of their control
(participant’s human sleeping partner or the dog made the decision), logistics
(nowhere else for the dog to sleep), routine or habit (not wanting to disrupt
the dog’s nightly routine), and becoming dependant on the dog’s presence to
sleep (as well as feeling the dog did not disrupt sleep, therefore no need to
alter the arrangement).

But not all dog owners felt the same, with many reasons given
as to why they chose not to co-sleep with their dog. These included, dog
behavioural issues (wanting to avoid the dog developing dominant or dependent
behaviour), health (co-sleeping would provoke allergies or is unhygienic),
disruptive behaviours (the dog is too restless), interpersonal relationships
(human sleeping partner would not allow it or it would impede intimacy), dog
characteristics (size of the dog), owner’s attitude (the dog doesn’t belong in
the house), and logistics (owning too many dogs to co-sleep).

Location of dog’s sleeping position
(chest) for participants that slept on a double, queen or king size bed and two
people in the bed, n = 517

In the end, co-sleeping (with whatever species) naturally
disturbs our sleep, yet people continue to do it. But given all the health
benefits of pet ownership, the good certainly outweighs the bad. It’s up to the
individual owner whether they choose to co-sleep with their animal/s, or not.

We are currently in the process of conducting another study
(with our honours student Jessica Mack), this time focussing on the impact of
co-sleeping on sleep quality and quantity.

If you are one of the many dog
owners that bed-share with your dog, we would love if you could complete our
online survey and share it with others who might be interested.Access the survey here:tinyurl.com/humandogcosleeping

Tuesday, 25 August 2015

Rudy turned 1 year old this month. It was a day to reflect on how he's grown over the seven months we've shared with him, while we've been #RaisingRudy. (If you haven't heard of Rudy - catch up here)He's still quite a goose of a puppy on most days, but we can see more of the dog he is becoming and, put simply, we adore him. To think back to the pup we took from the regional shelter who was very nervous about traffic and reconcile it with the 42kg (92lb) canine we share our days with, who shares the trampoline with my daughter, enjoys quiet moring river walks with me, will lie down and relax at cafes, play with every dog and greet every person at the dog park... Well, it's something!

Do other people wonder if their dog should be a unicorn?!

Whenever we take Rudy out in public, he attracts comment."What IS HE?"My answers have varied from sensible (a mix of sight hound breeds, like an English lurcher), to ludicrous (Muppet crossed with a Bunyip). But given the frequency of this question and my own curiosity, I decided to celebrate Rudy's first birthday with a visit to our lovely local vet for a small blood sample (no problem at all, we'd prepared by practising voluntary leg holds at home with food reinforcement) and a Mixed Breed Identification DNA test.

We'll have the results within a couple of weeks, but while we wait, I thought it might be fun for all of us to place bets on what you think Rudy's got in him. I've tried to include photos here that show you all his body parts that might help with identification. And also, you know, my dog is cute, so there's that.I'll be back in a couple of weeks with the full low down on the science of DNA tests, what they can tell us about mixed breed dogs and Rudy's results. If you can't see the poll below the photos, just click here to participate.Look forward to seeing your guesses!Miap.s. You can catch Julie and I joining Caren Cooper and Brian Hare for #citscichat on Twitter later this week. Details are here.p.p.s. You can join me for an online lecture about 'Why is Animal Welfare Important to Dogs?' later this week too, CEUs available, hosted by E-Training for Dogs. Details are here.